AG#5 Chocolate Vanilla Stout - with added photos

[jonnymorris]

I saw James1988's write up of this recipe (http://thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=30820) and decided to give it a go. I've added a bit of black malt to get the colour up but apart from that it's pretty much the same.

4750.00 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC)
475.00 g Barley, Flaked (3.3 EBC)
340.00 g Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC)
300.00 g Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L
250.00 g Amber Malt (43.3 EBC)
120.00 g Black (Patent) Malt (985.0 EBC)
30.00 g Target [10.00 %] - Boil 90.0 min
20.00 g Fuggles [5.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale

plus 100g cocoa powder at start of boil and 2 vanilla pods at start of boil and in with the primary.

Mash at 69degC for 90 mins. May reduce the boil to 60mins. Aiming for 23L.

OG 1060
33.5 IBU

Planning on brewing on Tuesday and will post pics on the day. I'd welcome any comments noting that this'll be my first AG stout. :

Edit: added URL

 

[RobWalker]

personally i feel the aroma hops are unneccessary. you'd want to reserve that space for the vanilla and cocoa to shine through. never underestimate simplicity! I used a single addition of saaz in my rum and raisin stout and the hop flavour was still quite prominent. but then if you want to stick to the recipe, ignore me :P

Otherwise it looks good imo. Lactose is a possible addition for sweetness and creaminess, but not neccessary by all means.

keep an eye on your hop filter, cocoa can be hard work :cry: hahah.

 

[WelshPaul]

This looks good. Could the flaked barley be substituted for something else if it is not available?

 

[jonnymorris]

If I can't get vanilla pods in the local shop could I substitute vanilla essence? I'm guessing I could but anyone got any ideas how concentrated it might be... i.e. how much to use?

 

[RobWalker]

extract, but not essence. essence is a chemical copy, morrisons do a decent quality extract for 90p. why not just do it by taste? are you kegging?

I've used 1tsp of extract in a 2 gallon batch before, and it was hardly noticable but somewhat there, although there were other flavours in there to compete with (rum lactose raisins.) it gets a little more obvious when the bad flavours mature off too because no doubt this is one to age if you want smoothness! so maybe start with 2.5tsp and work from there. others may have more sound advice.

also, check asian supermarkets if you have any, morrisons etc are a flippin rip off on pure vanilla!

 

[johnnyboy1965]

You aint going to taste 2 vanilla pods in a 23li brew. Look for a product called "Vanilla Aroma" this is by far the best on the market, but dont know if you can buy it form anywhere on-line. Ive started using this at work and I can state that it is better than using fresh vanilla pods

 

[james1988]

You aint going to taste 2 vanilla pods in a 23li brew.

I disagree with that. Having brewed the beer myself I can safely say, you can taste it. Remember you don't want it to be to over powering; just there. :

 

[jonnymorris]

£2.78 for ONE vanilla pod! That's £10 of vanilla in this one recipe. Vanilla extract it is. Thanks for the steer Rob.

Mash went on at 8:30. Plan on fly sparging at 10am.

 

[fbsf]

Rob @ MaltMiller does a pack of 5 decent sized pods for £3.85...

 

[james1988]

I steeped the vanilla for a week if I remember correctly. When you first taste it, you really know it's there but it mellows out after a while so it's only really present in the finish which is what I was aiming for.

I'm sure if you're a vanilla fiend you could really up the amount. :)

James

 

[carl_saint]

And was the choc taste really prominent?

 

[james1988]

Initially, slides into the background a bit more as it conditions. It creates quite a complex beer. It's a stout first with the complexity building as the flavours develop (Christ I sound like a right prat lol). You can taste the chocolate but the vanilla doesn't come into play until you swallow.

It's been a hit with everybody whose tried it, so far.

 

[carl_saint]

Definitely gonna give it a go as I've got some spare WLP004.

 

[Kinleycat]

Don't bin left over vanilla pods (dry ones of course) stick them in a jar with some sugar for a week or two, give them a daily shake and hey presto you have vanilla flavoured priming sugar.
Use it at work quite a bit and its quite handy for a subtle vanilla flavour made from what you would have thrown away.
Its surprising how much flavour the sugar takes on from the pods. :thumb:

 

[jonnymorris]

Just reached the boil. Added 80g rather than 100g of cocoa as I was a bit afraid of it being too chocolatey. 30g of target in at start too.

Planning on adding 2.5 tsp of vanilla extract toward the end of the boil.

 

[jonnymorris]

I ended up with 23L at 1060 OG. Bang on target. I may, however, have gone a bit mad with the photos....

Mash tun manifold - before:

Mash tun manifold - after:

Grain shot (six different ones) - before:

Doughing in:

Mash temp - before:

Wrapped up:

Mash temp - after 90 mins:

Fly sparge - old school foil method:

Black nectar:

A bit of tubing? Thanks Vossy:

Sparge water temp:

Stopped just before 0.990 but I had 32L:

This is what it's all about:

32L of wort is heavy:

Very heavy:

Grain shot: after (did I mention I went a bit mad with the photos?):

Target, cocoa, fuggles, vanilla extract, irish moss:

In go the target hops and 80g of cocoa:

Fairly dull boiler shot - it's boiling:

Chiller in with 15 mins to go:

Chillin' (fuggles, vanilla and irish moss went in a 10 mins):

Cooled to c.25degC and dropped into FV:

Rehydrating the yeast:

Aerating:

If you made it this far thanks for reading. I pitched the yeast and have it tucked up under the stairs along with my newly built STC-1000 controller. Lets hope it all works out well.

:

 

[fbsf]

Excellent brewday pics JM! Hope it turns out as good as it looks... :

 

[carl_saint]

Very good stuff! I'm gonna try this in a few weeks so looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

 

[Good Ed]

nice lot of pics, thanks :

 

[EskiBrew]

What was the outcome of this JM?

I've just something similar - I've only just racked it but there seems to be hardly any chocolate taste :hmm: